Fox boss urged Petraeus to run for president

Jon Swaine

WASHINGTON: General David Petraeus was urged to run for the US presidency by one of Rupert Murdoch's American lieutenants and was told that the media tycoon would bankroll his campaign, it has emerged.

The former CIA director, who resigned last month after having an affair with his biographer, reportedly declined the offer to protect his personal life. "My wife would divorce me," he said. "And I love my wife."

The big boss is bankrolling it. Roger's going to run it. And the rest of us are going to be your in-house.

Kathleen McFarland

General Petraeus learnt, while commanding US forces in Afghanistan last year, that the chairman of Mr Murdoch's Fox television network, Roger Ailes, wanted him to challenge Barack Obama.

Mr Ailes, a Republican powerbroker who worked for Richard Nixon, told General Petraeus he should reject the job of CIA director – from which he resigned last month – and campaign for president.

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"I thought the Republican field needed to be shaken up and Petraeus might be a good candidate," Mr Ailes told Bob Woodward, the veteran Washington Post reporter, who disclosed news of the talks. Mr Ailes passed his message to General Petraeus via an emissary sent to interview him in Kabul 18 months ago for Fox News, Mr Murdoch's American news channel beloved by US conservatives.

"I've got something to say to you directly from Roger Ailes," Kathleen McFarland, a national security analyst for the channel, told Mr Petraeus. "He loves you and everyone at Fox loves you.

"He says that if you're offered chairman [of the joint chiefs of staff], take it," McFarland continued. "But if you're offered anything else, don't take it, resign in six months and run for president."

General Petraeus was at the time the subject of fevered speculation among Republicans, who believed that he could return to the US as a respected war hero able to defeat Mr Obama in last month's election. The President's decision to make him CIA director was seen by some as an attempt to sideline a potential rival.

McFarland's 90-minute conversation with General Petraeus was recorded, and a digital copy of it somehow made its way into Woodward's hands.

McFarland, a Pentagon adviser to the Reagan administration, did not take no for an answer. The next time General Petraeus was in New York, she said, he should come and "chat to Roger and Rupert Murdoch", to which General Petraeus, for whom this conversation was clearly not the first of its kind, replied: "Rupert's after me as well."

"Tell him [Mr Ailes] if I ever ran," Petraeus laughingly says as the meeting is wrapping up. "I'd take him up on his offer. He said he would quit Fox."

McFarland says that "the big boss" would "bankroll" the campaign – a clear reference to Mr Murdoch. "The big boss is bankrolling it. Roger's going to run it. And the rest of us are going to be your in-house."

The Fox News chief tried to make light of the recording in a telephone interview with Woodward on Monday. "It was more of a joke, a wiseass way I have," Mr Ailes said, before going on in time-honoured fashion to blame the messenger – in this case McFarland.

"She was way out of line. It's someone's fantasy to make me a kingmaker. It's not my job."

Spokesmen for Mr Murdoch declined to comment.

General Petraeus politely declined and said he needed to focus on his home life after commanding troops at war. "It's never going to happen," he said. "My wife would divorce me. And I love my wife".

General and Mrs Petraeus, who have been married for 37 years, are now seeking to repair their relationship.